


Common Trouble

by mechanicaljewel



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Background Relationships, M/M, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-28 14:05:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7643629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mechanicaljewel/pseuds/mechanicaljewel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felix could track his relationship with James by three women (and a man, sort of). It takes him a while to appreciate that he is the only constant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Common Trouble

**Author's Note:**

  * For [navaan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/gifts).



> > Bond looked at [Felix] with the recognition that exists between crooks, between homosexuals, between secret agents. It is the look common to men bound by secrecy - by common trouble.
> 
> _\--Ian Fleming - The Man with the Golden Gun_

The first time happened in as much a porn film scenario as James’s CIA dossier (which even for a dry intelligence report gave him plenty of tantalizing details and a hard-on) had led Felix to suspect was par for the course for the man. Felix had dropped by the hospital to see how he was recovering after Le Chiffre’s torture (and to offer some masculine sympathy if he wasn’t). As he had approached James room, he heard a sharp groan that made him fear the worse. An entirely unfounded fear, as it turned out, when he walked in the room to find James fully nude on his hospital bed, his cock almost entirely obscured by Vesper Lynd’s mouth.

“Jesus!” Felix exclaimed and leapt back out into the corridor, closing the door just enough to give them privacy while still able to hear him say, “Glad to see you’re recovered, James. I’ll let you get back to celebrating. Or your physical therapy, whatever it is. Sorry for interrupting, I’ll be in touch.”

He had just let go of the doorknob and hadn’t taken one step away from the door when James called back, “Hold up, Felix. I wouldn’t call it an interruption-- would you, Vesper?”

Vesper gave a short, surprised chuckle before replying playfully, “Not at all. Come back in, Felix. And lock the door behind you. We wouldn’t want any real interruptions this time.”

Felix followed suit, half in shock, but with steadily mounting anticipation. Shit like this just didn't happen to him, but goddamn if he wasn't grateful to have been brought into James Bond's orbit.

~

"Is James such a bad influence on all of his friends?" Camille Montes asked as she sprawled out on Felix's hotel bed in a morning-after glow.

Felix paused in his post-shower dressing and looked at her in the mirror "How do you mean?"

"Taking a woman to bed after taking her in for questioning. It seems a thing he would do, but I can't tell if you're friends because of a mutual disdain for professional ethics, or if he brings it out in people."

Felix thought about it for a moment. "You tell me. You did, after all, accept my invitation for 'drinks and then some'. Would you have done the same during your intelligence days, or were you just hoping lightning would strike twice on this case?"

She laughed softly. "It didn't strike twice. It tried, but it was a little too obviously hung up on a dead woman. Though yes, it would have succeeded otherwise." She paused, studying Felix's face in the mirror. "What is it? You look stunned."

Felix closed his eyes and gave a brief shake of his head. "No, it's just--well, I guess he's human after all."

Camille laughed again, "As opposed to what?"

"I don't know. An incubus. Never imagined him getting turned down for sex."

"Oh really?" She raised an eyebrow at him. " _You_ wouldn't turn him down?"

Felix shrugged. "Haven't yet, though it hasn't happened since Vesper. And apparently Bolivian intelligence needs to work on teaching their agents about making assumptions." He smirked back at her.

"Apparently..." She fell into a thoughtful silence. "I think I have my answer. He's a force of nature, isn't he?"

"Truer words were never spoken."

~ 

After the Skyfall incident, James came to visit him at his home in Miami. They had had encounters since the Quantum affair--some professional, some personal, with occasional pleasure according to James's tides, which Felix had more than enjoyed getting caught up in each time--but he wasn't sure what to expect this this time. He knew the death of Mansfield had hit him hard, and though he knew James sincerely wanted to spend time with him, he was also fairly sure he wanted to indulge in the beautiful people and ever-flowing libations of Miami. Felix could hardly blame him for that.

He was surprised, then, that while the booze indeed flowed freely every night, it was from his own home bar, and the only variety to the sex was which room of his house they did it in. Felix didn't pry, wanting to respect James's mourning process--and also not willing to consider whether he would be disappointed if that was all it was to James.

Eventually, James spoke up on his own out of the blue one afternoon--too early to be excused as mere drunken sentiment. "He made a pass at me. Silva did. Of a sort," he stated matter-of-factly. "More trying to get under my skin than in my pants, but still. Stroked my thighs and said, 'first time for everything...'" James chuckled derisively, then after a pause added, "Made me think of you, of course."

Felix raised his eyebrows. "'Of course'? I refuse to believe I was your first man."

James snorted and shook his head. "No, just the last. And after everything--" he gestured vaguely in the air "--I also wanted you to be the next."

Felix could have made a jibe about James's presumption, but why even pretend that he would or could have said no?

~

When Lucia Sciarra was settled in her safehouse, she pulled Felix aside and kissed him passionately, pouring ever iota of her body and soul into it. After they parted, she said, "That was from James."

"He tell you to give me that?" Felix asked, still slightly breathless.

"He didn't have to," she replied. "I've know enough men like him-- too many. They don't trust anyone and love even less easily. That he trusts you shows where his heart lies."

He shrugged, trying to deny the weight of her words purchase on his soul. "I'm not the only one. Hell, I'm not even the most important one. I'm just the only one left."

With a soul-piercing gaze, Lucia said, "That is why you are the most important. You are the lighthouse in his storm."

After he left the safehouse, Felix sat in his car, turning over Lucia's words in his mind for almost an hour. There was no point questioning whether she was correct in her pronouncement, there was only the matter of deciding what to do with it. With their work, with James's own personal brand of trouble that Felix had long since given himself over to, what _was_ there to do?

Finally, he pulled out his phone and shot James a text: _LS is secure. Need anything else, I'm here for you._


End file.
